Fittingly, it’s been there from the start. Salford’s Lowry theatre and gallery is celebrating its silver anniversary, and Going to the Match, L.S. Lowry’s depiction of Bolton Wanderers supporters making their way to a 1953 fixture at Burnden Park, has hung there for each of those 25 years.

Initially a loan from the Professional Footballers’ Association, that it remains on view owes much to the tenacity of Lowry chief executive, Julie Fawcett, who successfully bid for it at a 2022 auction, and the largesse of the Law Family charitable foundation, who provided the £7.8 million that was necessary to secure it.

Now, to mark a quarter of a century of the L.S. Lowry collection remaining on public display, the painting has been opened up by Barcelona’s Layers Of Reality studio to form the basis of what is the first free immersive experience in the United Kingdom; a six-minute loop that ushers the viewer from the smoke stacks of the Bolton skyline to the cobbles underfoot, as the crowd congregate for a three o’clock kick-off.

The effect is a curious one. Within the world of Lowry’s painting, for all that the shifting perspectives give an impression of space, the viewer is nonetheless aware of their comparative solidity in comparison to Lowry’s brush-stroke crowd. Far more than the knots of folk drawn to the ground, one is left in the position of a spectator – benignly detached, if undoubtedly fascinated.

Coaxed by a voiceover from Bolton-born comedian Sophie Willan, who herself worked with the Lowry’s development scheme, one is directed to particular details, whisked to them by the pull of the projection’s focus. The running time, perhaps, necessitates that less is left to chance, but just the same, the effect is like being hectored by a well-meaning and well-loved teacher. By contrast, the score, vaguely but inoffensively contemporary, is less obtrusive, leaving room for one’s own emotions, rather than indicating what they ought to be.

Situated so closely to an Old Trafford that itself is threatened with an undistinguished upgrade – more Three Ring Circus than Theatre of Dreams – it’s hard not to draw unflattering comparisons across the decades. The supporters at Burnden Park, fresh from the factory gate, pay at the turnstiles at prices that will not burn a hole in their wage packet. It’s all a far cry from a football club held hostage to debt repayment schemes and part ownership by an entrepreneur who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing, so that the everyday fan is increasingly priced out of attendance.

Importantly, the immersive reel is not intended as a standalone experience, but rather as an introduction to the collection as a whole, a decompression chamber between the quayside bustle of Media City and the times given shape by Lowry’s palette. The main body of the collection affords the opportunity for a different kind of immersion, that which arises from an unmediated absorption in the painted surface. Within the smaller frames of Lowry’s work, there are equally complete worlds; ones which one can enter at one’s own pace, and explore with one’s own eye.

Nonetheless, it seems churlish to carp at the contained magic of the immersive gallery. Both as the Lowry’s gift to its audience, and an attraction in itself, it offers up a slice of cutting-edge edutainment, brief enough for young attention spans and sufficiently well-realised to leave a lasting impression, one that whets the palate for more.

By Desmond Bullen, Chief Arts Correspondent

Main image: LOWRY 360. Executive production and creative direction by Layers of Reality S.L. Photo by Michael Pollard.         

 

Lowry 360 is at Lowry until December 24, 2025. For more information, click here.